Family Of a 7-Year Old With PH Hopes For a Service Dog

Zach is a 7-year old little boy who has been though a lot. He was born with Down syndrome, but has also been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder; nystagmus, an eye condition where the eyes are constantly moving; sensory processing disorder; sleep apnea; and more recently with Pulmonary Hypertension, a serious and rare disease that affects the arteries in the lungs and the right side of the heart.

Whitney Manning, Zach’s mother, says her son cannot verbally communicate with her mother or his older siblings and that the little boy is a master of escaping — as she called him “little Houdini”; no matter how many locks and chains are on the doors, Zach can still find a way to escape.

For all this reasons Whitney decided that a service dog would be perfect for helping to address Zach’s conditions.